


You Make the Crimson Blue

by mellish



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Blood and Injury, Karaoke, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Sparring, Training, you never listen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-23
Updated: 2011-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mellish/pseuds/mellish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dino does not enjoy training Kyoya the second time around. Takes place mostly in the TYL!arc. Prompt: Hibari/Dino - bruises; "Love comes in colors I can't deny."</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Make the Crimson Blue

i.  
Dino is quickly improving his first aid skills, a feat that Romario would be proud of. He's trimmed bandages with his teeth before, and once when he'd been alone he had somehow stabbed himself in the foot with the needle he was using to drag a gash on his leg closed (in hindsight, he shouldn't even have tried; one of the Cavallone nurses had sighed at his sewing several hours later and told him, regretfully, that they'd have to take it out and do it over). 

What's funny (and also kind of sad) is that he knows if his men aren't around, he could lose, because Hibari _would_ kill him without batting an eyelash, and he's only nervous because he's agitated, because he has to concentrate and the air smells like blood. A tonfa smashes into his cheek, with the intent of dislocating his jaw, but then his whip has also sliced neatly beneath one of Hibari's disarmingly empty eyes. They're like pools of dark water, Dino finds himself thinking ( _inappropriate as always, Cavallone_ – that's Reborn, backhanding his knee so that his whole leg buckles) – not just in battle like most people, but all the time. Dino has never known anyone with such a one track mind.

"Can we call this a draw now?" Half demand and half joke, he's distracted by how it turns into a gurgle because blood is filling his mouth. All Hibari does is grimace – or twist his mouth into a deeper frown than usual – before staggering forward and collapsing on the floor. Dino feels decidedly untriamphant. Somehow, training with Hibari has turned out to be a cross between suicide and babysitting the most unreasonable child in the world.

ii.  
It is just like Hibari to be the mastermind in a crisis, and Dino remembers this as soon as he sees Hibari from ten years ago, with that prefect badge pinned to his shirt sleeve and his nose crinkled in _all-these-people-suck_ disgust. He still carries that totally natural conceit of someone who thinks he's invincible – only it's more pronounced when he is scrawny and not wearing a suit. The box looks like a toy in his hands. 

It didn't take a lot of looking to find him. Hibari goes to places close to the sky, where he can stare blankly at nothing and escape the irritating presence of il più comune.

"I'm going to train you," Dino says, pretending that he knows how. It's always been a point of pride for Dino, that the Vongola deem him capable of tutoring one of their own – but sometimes he thinks it's because he's the only one who would dare. (Reborn _did_ appoint him, after all.) There's also the sense of duty that the apocalypse is impending and so he had better help any way he can, because try as they might, they couldn't fix things. It's always up to the kids.

Of course Hibari doesn't care about that. He doesn't care about anything besides Namimori, and he reinforces this by glaring at Dino while shifting the box from hand to hand. Dino considers saying, _you could help because you have nothing better to do_ , but being trite won't work with Hibari. Neither will coddling or baiting or mere forcing; if Hibari doesn't want to budge, he just won't.

"Every minute you spend in the future, something could be going on in Namimori in your time." He has to do this delicately, because it doesn't always work. Hibari grunts. This is mildly encouraging, so he continues, "Someone could be…ignoring the uniform code. Or bringing in prohibited weapons." He can't help his eye straying to the little curve of irritation that dips between Hibari's brows. "Or alcohol."

Of course that's the point when Hibari does a lazy sweep kick at him, which means that he's finally listening. Dino graciously avoids it, and waits for the inevitable pain to begin.

iii.  
Even after all this time, Hibari's regenerative ability amazes him. Already he's twitching around on the bed, when not more than an hour ago he'd been stiff as a corpse and barely breathing. Dino knows this better than anyone else, probably. He has seen what Hibari's enemies looked like, after they'd broken an arm and a leg and _certainly_ fractured his skull, when he'd rise up like a zombie and continue to fight them. Dino is _not_ still supposed to be smirking about that.

Everything else about this scene, though, is muted with nostalgia – the smell of rubbing alcohol, the relentless ache in his muscles, the sudden snarling sounds that Hibari makes in his sleep. Dino has kicked his boots off and is lounging as much as one can lounge on a folding chair; this place is dingy, more like a shady hideout than it needs to be. It used to be a five-star hotel, close enough to Namimori so that after training his men could drag their half-dead bodies in and administer first aid without getting the hospital involved. He _felt_ a lot older than Hibari back then, but under these circumstances he _knows_ he is, and without the rush of adrenaline he is forced to absorb the fact that he just beat the crap out of someone far too young; but _it's the only way_ and _he was asking for it_ sound like excuses to him.

"We can't have it any other way, can we, old pal?" He raises a glass of white wine to Hibari, who turns over noisily, undoubtedly reopening some of the wounds Dino worked hard to patch up. Hibari never makes any sounds of even remote suffering; it's always anger, or irritation, or utter boredom. But of course it hurts – how could it not? – and Dino has taken care to put the usual painkillers on the bedside table, next to a glass of water with some antibiotics dissolved in it, because Hibari won't take it otherwise.

Dino decides it'll be at least another hour before Hibari wakes up, so he stumbles to the bathroom, still holding the glass of wine, into the shower, and sticks his head under the tap, caring little that this place doesn't have a heater. He's feeling hot, he realizes, as he douses himself in icy water. It doesn't help that Romario and the others have stayed thoughtfully out of the room, and Dino knows it's stupid to ask _what for_. But nothing's going to happen. Not with Kyoya – _Hibari_ – in this state – that's stupid, really. Not with Kyo – Hibari, _ever_. It just doesn't happen that way.

Dino has a sudden sharp memory, of Hibari looking up at the ceiling, lazy as hell, arms folded into the sleeves of his yukata while he listens to Dino complain about how they aren't getting anywhere. "My people in Italy are doing all they can," Dino says. "But Byakuran never lets himself get caught."

"Who would?" Hibari asks, dryly, and Dino remembers being jolted by the smile suddenly on Hibari's face. He had finally taken his eyes off the ceiling and was now moving away, presumably to show Dino to the door. "Things are going to change pretty soon. In the meantime, herbivores should just shut up and wait." He remembers being confused, and leaning forward to ask a question, and Hibari's fingers banging against his chin to shut his mouth. Then some movement, and his hand on Hibari's hipbone, and his hair tangled painfully in Hibari's fingers, and Hibari telling him to wait and see. 

Dino doesn't really care that he's always left out. He's more upset that there's never any warning. But he's not supposed to expect those, not from Hibari. He drains his glass, in a most undignified manner, and sticks his head under the shower tap again.

iv.  
It's not true that Hibari has learned to listen to him. He just _pretends_ to know the right things to say. Tsuna doesn't hide his amazement, but of course he's worried about eventually becoming Hibari's boss (now that he seems to have finally accepted it's going to happen, regardless of what he wants – or thinks he wants). It's certainly not going to be a picnic. Dino's glad he has his own family. The Vongola seem to have carved out a special corner in his shining golden heart, but as for Hibari – he'll wash his hands of him eventually, and he'll stop having to watch him die every single time; he'll stop having to die himself.

It's not worth it.

_It's because you don't care_ , he considers saying. It's stupid, it sounds desperate even in his head, and he knows if he ever says it aloud the world will implode and god, it would be truly awful if Hibari started laughing at him.

_It's because you never listen_ , he thinks of saying instead, but that's not true.

_It's because you're – because you_ – but smooth talking was never really his strong suit, despite appearances.

v.  
Hibari drags him away from the celebration with the usual brutality, ignoring how Dino is terribly hungover and also rather dishevelled. He attempts to round a corner and slams into the wall at a strange angle, because Romario had left with Kusakabe to debate the finer points of growing turnips, and the rest of the men were still engaged in a singing contest where the current victor was, oddly, Yamamoto. Hibari lets go of his hand at that point while Dino stumbles around the wall, wondering how it became so nice and rounded, but by then he has regained some brain functionality, and makes a grab for Hibari's wrist. Hibari is wearing a suit, although he took his jacket off for dinner; Dino's hand faintly brushes the cuff of his sleeve.

"Kyoya," he says. He wants to duck into the nearest room, but of course that's unacceptable. Hibari nudges his chin with an elbow and walks off, presumably in the direction of his own bedroom. Always the same story, but Dino follows anyway. It's dark when they reach it; Haru's keening soprano filters through from somewhere in the distance.

Dino knows Hibari's body because he's broken it apart so many times before, like something he'd painted by numbers – blue above the hipbone, red across the cheek, white where a slash healed into a scar, and some of these are his and some are not. Hibari does this to him too, fiercely, with his knuckles, a kind of beating that mirrors his own heart growing frantic. Which is unfair, Dino decides, because he _planned_ this. And no, it was not fun to have to school Kyoya in suffering yet _again_. Once was enough for a lifetime, thank you.

"Sometimes," he whispers, because he is trying not to laugh, "You are very difficult to deal with."

"I do not like you," Kyoya answers, but he shuts up anyway, when Dino kisses him.


End file.
